UHS Model Election results

The visual distribution of vote totals for each candidate or initiative on the ballot. (Aidan Arasasingham)

By CATHY SUNNews Editor

Information for this article was provided by University High School’s Associated Student Body.

151 students cast their votes for President, U.S. Senator, Irvine Mayor, Irvine School Board, Proposition 55 and Proposition 64 during University High School’s (UHS) Model Election.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton emerged as the winner with 75.9% of the vote, U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris won with 61.9% of the vote and Mayoral candidate Mary Ann Gaido achieved victory with 32.9% of the vote.

School Board incumbents Paul Bokota and Lauren Brooks were re-elected to the Irvine School Board, both with at-large margins of 22% and candidate Betty Carroll won the third open seat with 18% of the at-large vote.

Proposition 55, a tax extension on education and healthcare funding, passed with 107 votes, or 75.9% of voters. 34 students voted against the proposition, and 10 students abstained from voting.

Proposition 64, a proposition to legalize recreational marijuana, passed by a narrower margin, with 54.8% of the vote.

110 students casted their ballots for Hillary Clinton, 21 for Donald Trump, 11 for Jill Stein and 3 for Gary Johnson. One write-in vote went to Scott Laske (Sr.), a student at UHS.

In the U.S. Senate election, 83 students voted for Kamala Harris, 51 students voted for Loretta Sanchez and 17 students abstained.

Mayoral candidate Mary Ann Gaido defeated her close competitor Gang Chen by a margin of 3 votes. Gaido won a total of 46 votes, Chen 43 and Wagner, Daigle and Chey won 31, 15 and 5 votes respectively.

In the tight six-way race for School Board, Paul Bokota and Lauren Brooks, who ran joint campaigns, achieved a similar number of votes, with 77 students voting for Bokota and 75 voting for Brooks.

Betty Carroll, who received the endorsements of eight current and former School Board members, won the third seat in the Model Election with 61 votes. Geri Zollinger, Mark Newgent and Naz Hamid finished with 54, 46 and 36 votes respectively.

Students regardless of age or grade could vote in the Model Election as long as they pre-registered the week before. Of the 372 students who pre-registered to vote, 43% voted in the Model Election, which occurred before school, after school and during snack and lunch.

The Model Election was organized by Student Representative Aidan Arasasingham (Sr.), the Associated Student Body and the Social Science Department.